Near field communication (NFC) device and method for selectively securing records in a near field communication data exchange format (NDEF) message

ABSTRACT

Methods for selectively securing records in a Near Field Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message. A method includes placing a place marker signature record in the NDEF message. The place marker signature record is a modified signature Record Type Definition (RTD). A first set of records preceding the place marker signature record in the NDEF message is unsecured. The method also includes securing a second set of records following the place marker signature record. Another method includes placing a secured bytes field in the signature RTD. The secured byte field indicates a number of bytes of data to be secured preceding this field. The method also includes securing data in records preceding this field in the signature RTD, based on a value of the secured bytes field.

PRIORITY

This application claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to anapplication filed in the Intellectual Property Office of India on Jul.9, 2008, and assigned application Serial No. 1668/CHE/2008, and to anapplication filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on May 19,2009, and assigned Serial No. 10-2009-0043472, the contents both ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to Near Field Communication(NFC) technology, and more particularly, to methods of identifyingrecords that are to be secured in an NFC security Record Type Definition(RTD).

2. Description of the Related Art

NFC technology is currently being used with various handheld devicessuch as mobile terminals, mainly for sharing information, payment, andticketing and travel. Accordingly, information related to these servicescan be exchanged over NFC using predefined NFC tags as per the NFC RTD.

The Security Work Group (WG) in the NFC Forum™ has defined a record typecalled the Signature RTD that can be included as a record in a NearField Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message. The signatureRTD provides a way to verify the authenticity and integrity of some, orall, of the records in an NDEF message. The Signature RTD contains adigital signature that can be verified using pre-established credentialssuch as certificates.

A wide range of applications can be supported over an NFC link.Typically, modes of operation of NFC devices can be classified asReader/Writer mode, Peer-to-Peer mode, and Card Emulation mode. In thePeer-to-Peer mode of communication both NFC devices can have similarcapabilities and there is no distinction between the devices. InReader/Writer mode of communication, one of the devices has thecapability of the Reader/Writer and the other device stores a simpletag. In the Card Emulation mode of communication, one of the devices isa reader and the other device could be a tag or an NFC device thatstores the details of a smart card or a credit card.

Data used in NFC communication can be stored is several formats. A NDEFmessage is a collection of one or more individual records that can havespecific definitions called Record Type Definitions (RTDs). The NFCForum™ defines several well-known RTDs. For some typical applications ofNFC, like Smart Poster, Handover of Configuration information, WebAccess, etc., RTDs are defined by the NFC Standards body and publishedas recommendations. These RTDs can be used individually or as a part ofan NDEF message. The record includes a few header fields that list thecontrol information for the record, for example, type, payload length,and an optional ID field. The data specific to the application arestored in payload field of the record. The details of the NDEF messageformat are provided in the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF), TechnicalSpecification—NFC Forum™ NDEF 1.0 NFCForum-TS-NDEF_(—)1.0—2006 Jul. 24.

Some of the typical applications of NFC are Smart Posters, e-ticketing,coupons, loyalty points, and Peer-to-Peer applications like vcardexchange, image transfer, and the like.

For the above-mentioned applications, application data can be formattedin a single record or in multiple records.

An NDEF message is a collection of individual records following somepredefined RTD. Data in the NDEF record can be secured for integrityprotection and to authenticate the creator of the record by adding NFCSignature RTD records. The Signature RTD creator uses algorithms tocreate a digital signature field that provides integrity protection.Keys that are used to generate a digital signature for a message areprovided in certificates that are also listed in the Signature RTD.

The NFC Forum™ document that explains the specification for theSignature RTD, which will be referred to herein, is NFCForum-TS-RTD_Signature_(—)0.99—Technical Specification NFC Forum™RTD-Signature 0.99—NFC Forum-TS-RTD_Signature_(—)0.99—2008 Jun. 10,DRAFT.

One or more Signature RTD records can be added to an NDEF message toprovide security features such as integrity and authentication for oneor more records in the NDEF message. In the Signature RTD specificationthere is a need to explicitly identify the records for which thesignature field in the Signature RTD provides security. The SignatureRTD specification, before version 0.99, defines that a given SignatureRTD record can provide security to all the records preceding thisSignature RTD record or it can protect the records that are between aprevious Signature RTD in the same NDEF message and the presentSignature RTD record.

However, the above referenced definitions for specifying the recordsthat are secured by a Signature RTD record are not flexible enough as itis not possible to exclude some records in the beginning of an NDEFmessage that do not need to be secured. That is, there is no method toidentify a block of records in an NDEF message that are secured by aSignature RTD.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been designed to address at least theabove-identified problems in the prior art, and to provide at least theadvantages described herein below. Accordingly, the present inventionprovides methods for identifying records or a sequence of bytes, in anNDEF record, that are to be secured in a Signature RTD record.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method forselectively securing records in a Near Field Communication Data ExchangeFormat (NDEF) message is provided. The method includes placing a placemarker signature record in the NDEF message, the place marker signaturerecord being a modified signature Record Type Definition (RTD), and afirst set of records preceding the place marker signature record in theNDEF are unsecured; and securing the second set of records following theplace marker signature record using a signature RTD containing a validsignature.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method forselectively securing records in a Near Field Communication Data ExchangeFormat (NDEF) message is provided. The method includes setting asecured_bytes field in the signature Record Type Definition (RTD), thebyte field indicating a number of bytes of data secured by the signaturein the signature RTD; and securing data in the NDEF message precedingthis field in the signature RTD, based on the value of the secured bytesfield.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a Near FieldCommunication (NFC) device for selectively securing records in a NearField Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message is provided. TheNFC device includes: an NFC message generating unit for placing a placemarker signature record in the NDEF message, and for securing a secondset of records following the place marker signature record using asignature Record Type Definition (RTD) including a valid signature; anda transmitter for transmitting the NDEF message. The place markersignature record is a modified signature RTD, and a first set of recordspreceding the place marker signature record placed in the NDEF isunsecured.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a Near FieldCommunication (NFC) device for selectively securing records in a NearField Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message is provided. TheNFC device includes: an NFC message generating unit for generating theNDEF message by setting a secured_bytes field in a signature Record TypeDefinition (RTD), wherein the secured_bytes field indicates a number ofbytes of data secured by a signature in the signature RTD, and securingdata in the NDEF message preceding the secured_bytes field in thesignature RTD, based on a value of the secured bytes field; and atransmitter for transmitting the NDEF message.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent to one skilled in the art from thefollowing detailed description when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates communication between a pair of NFC devices;

FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional protocol stack required to support NFCtechnology;

FIG. 3 illustrates an NDEF structure;

FIG. 4A illustrates a payload of a Signature RTD record;

FIG. 4B illustrates fields in a Signature field of a Signature RTD;

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a modified structure of a Signature RTD recordin accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a first method of selecting records that are securedin an NDEF in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative structure for a signature RTD inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a second method of securing records in an NDEF inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates sub fields of a signature field in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for selectively securingrecords in an NDEF, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method for selectively securingrecords in an NDEF, in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 13 illustrates an NFC Device according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figuresare illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawnto scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in thefigures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improveunderstanding of various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described withreference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description,the same elements will be designated by the same reference numeralsalthough they are shown in different drawings. Further, in the followingdescription of the present invention, a detailed description of knownfunctions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when itmay obscure the subject matter of the present invention.

Additionally, it may be observed that the method steps and systemcomponents have been represented by conventional symbols in the figures,showing only specific details that are relevant for an understanding ofthe present invention. Further, details that may be readily apparent toperson ordinarily skilled in the art may not have been disclosed. Inthis document, relational terms such as first and second, and the like,may be used to distinguish one entity from another entity, withoutnecessarily implying any actual relationship or order between suchentities.

As indicated above, the present application provides methods foridentifying records preserved in NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format). Inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the beginningof a set of records that are secured by a signature RTD is indicatedusing a Begin/Place Marker signature record. In accordance with a secondembodiment of the present invention, a new field is added to thesignature RTD record called the secured bytes. The secured bytes fieldis used to identify bytes of data that are to be protected by theSignature RTD. This application has the potential to protect the datafrom multiple records and multiple NDEF messages using a singleSignature RTD, by using the secured bytes field.

FIG. 1 illustrates communication between a pair of NFC devices.Generally, the devices communicate in three different application modes,i.e., a Peer-to-Peer mode, a Reader/Writer mode, and a Card Emulationmode. In the Peer-to-Peer mode, both the NFC devices can have similarcapability and there is no distinction between the devices. In theReader/Writer mode, one of the devices has the capability of theReader/Writer and the other device is a simple tag. In the CardEmulation mode, one of the devices is a Reader and the other devicecould be a simple tag or a NFC device that stores the details of acredit card in the form of a record stored in secure memory.

FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional protocol stack that is used to supportNFC technology in an NFC device. The application data can be coded inthe form of NDEF messages by a message generator of the NFC device andtransported over the NFC link by a transmitter of the NFC device. TheNDEF format can be used in the Peer-to-Peer mode as well as theReader/Writer mode of operation.

FIG. 3 illustrates the NDEF structure. The first byte includes controlinformation for the NDEF message in various bit fields, i.e., MB(Message Begin), ME (Message End), CF (Chunk Flag), SR (Short Record),IL (ID Length) field, and TNF (Type Name Format). Various length andvalues for the Type, ID and Payload are stored after the various bitfields.

FIG. 4A illustrates a conventional payload of the existing Signature RTDrecord, as described in NFC Forum-TS-RTD_Signature_(—)0.99. Referring toFIG. 4, a Version field 400 lists the major and minor version number ofthe specification standard. A Signature field 405 includes a TLVstructure to represent the signature for the NDEF data that isprotected. A Certificate Chain field 410 provides the list ofcertificates that are used to authenticate the sender of the NDEFmessage.

FIG. 4B illustrates the sub fields in the Signature field 405 of theSignature RTD illustrated in FIG. 4A. More specifically, the Signaturefield 405 includes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)_present bit field415, a Signature Type field 420, a Signature length field 425, and aSignature/URI field 430. The URI_present bit field 415 is used toindicate if the signature is included in the record itself or is presentin a URI pointed to by the Signature/URI field 430.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a modified Signature RTD record in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, a first byte of the modified Signature RTD recordis a control field 500, which includes three subfields (515, 520, and525) as illustrated in FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 6, the first two bits of the control field 500, i.e.,the Flag field 515, indicate whether the signature RTD record is used toindicate the beginning of a record block for which integrity,authentication protection is given or whether the record also includes aSignature field 505. The following two fields, i.e., the Version-MajorNumber field 520 and the Version-Minor Number field 525, mark the majorand minor version numbers as 3 bit fields, respectively. The first twobits of the control field 500 can take one of the following values.

00—Marks a beginning of a record block for which signature is lateradded. This is a Place Marker Signature Record.

11—Indicates a signature record including a signature

01-10 are reserved for future use.

FIG. 7 illustrates a first method of selecting records that are securedin an NDEF in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 7, the record named as Begin/Place Holder Sig RTD iscoded and indicates to the NDEF parser that the records following thisSignature RTD, until a next signature RTD, are secured. Accordingly,records R3, R4, and R5 are protected by the Signature RTD that followsrecord R2.

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative structure for a Signature RTD inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Morespecifically, FIG. 8 represents an alternative structure for a SignatureRTD where data that is secured by this Signature RTD is indicated usingbytes of information.

Referring to FIG. 8, a Secured Bytes field 805 indicates a number ofdata bytes that precedes this field of the Signature RTD, which issecured by a signature in this Signature RTD.

FIG. 9 illustrates a second method of securing records in an NDEF inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 9, the Secured Bytes field is set to a value equal to the size ofthe records R4 and R5 in the Sig RTD field.

FIG. 10 illustrates sub fields of a signature field in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. More specifically, in FIG. 10, aBegin or Place Marker record has the URI_Present and Signature Typefield set to zero. The Signature Type field can take index valuesdefined in a table that lists the valid values that can used to giveinformation about the signature algorithm used to generate the digitalsignature. For example, a Signature type 0x00 can be used to indicate aPlace marker record.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for selectively securingrecords in a Near Field Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF), inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Morespecifically, FIG. 11 illustrates a method 1100 for selectively securingrecords in an NDEF.

Referring to FIG. 11, at step 1102, the method 1100 is initiated. Atstep 1104, a place marker signature record is defined. The place markersignature record can be defined by setting a URI_present field to ‘0’and setting a signature_length field to ‘0’. The combination ofURI_present field set to ‘0’ and signature_length field set to ‘0’indicates the signature record is a place marker signature record. Theplace marker signature record can also be defined by dividing a versionfield in the Signature RTD into a flag, a major number version, and aminor number version. The flag field is used to indicate if the recordis a place marker signature record or a Signature RTD. In addition, theplace marker signature record can be defined by setting a URI_presentfield to ‘0’ and setting a Signature_Type field to a predefined value.The combination of URI_present field set to ‘0’ and Signature_Type fieldset to the predefined value indicates the signature record is a placemarker signature record.

At step 1106, a place marker signature record is placed in the NDEFmessage. The place marker signature record is a modified signature RTD.A first set of records preceding the place marker signature record inthe NDEF is unsecured. In accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention, the first set of records preceding the place marker signaturerecord until a beginning of the NDEF message are unsecured. Inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the firstset of records preceding the place marker signature record until thesignature RTD preceding the place marker signature record are unsecured.

At step 1108, the second set of records following the place markersignature record is secured. The method 1100 gives flexibility to securesome records while keeping some records the same NDEF unsecured.Thereafter, the method 1100 terminates at step 1110.

The above-described method provides flexibility to delete unsecuredrecords in the NDEF message without changing the signature in thesignature RTD. In addition, unsecured records in the NDEF message can bemodified without changing the signature in the signature RTD. Furtherunsecured records in the NDEF message can be added without changing thesignature in the signature RTD. The method 1100 is explained below indetail under the heading Method 1.

Method 1:

To mark the beginning of a set of records that are secured by aSignature RTD, a Begin/Place Marker signature record is added before thefirst record that is to be secured. Three different fieldrepresentations can be used define a Begin/Place Marker signaturerecord.

(i) Defining a Begin/Place Marker Signature Record Using a Control Field

The Signature RTD record is modified to include a two bit flag field.This 2 bit field can be coded in the first byte of the current SignatureRTD record. The values that can be taken by this 2 bit flag field are:

00—Marks beginning of record block for which signature is later added.This is a Place Marker Signature Record.

11—Signature record with signature

01-10 are reserved for future use

FIGS. 5, 6, and 7 provide examples for the structures that may be usedin Method 1.

To mark the beginning of a set of records that are secured by aSignature RTD, a Begin/Place Marker signature record is added before thefirst record that is to be secured with the control field 500 in theSignature RTD set to 00. The signature field 505 can be absent in thisrecord, as this is just a place marker record. The Certificate Chainfield 510 can be optionally specified in this place marker recorditself. By placing the Certificate Chain field 510 in the place markerrecord, the security engine in the NDEF parser at the receiver canauthenticate the message even before the signature needs to becalculated. Another advantage is that the signature generation canhappen as the NDEF message is read. This can give added performanceimprovement.

A signature RTD with the flag bits set to ‘11’ is placed after the setof records that are to be secured. This Signature RTD has the signaturethat will be verified at the receiver for integrity protection. If thecertificate values are not specified in the Place Marker signaturerecord then it is provided in the later Signature RTD that has thesignature field set.

(ii) Defining a Begin/Place Marker Signature Record Using First Byte ofSignature Field

An alternate way to represent a Begin/Place Marker record is to usesubfields 415, 420, 425, and 430 of the Signature field of the SignatureRTD. The version field 400 is used only to indicate the version. The subfields 415, 420, 425, and 430 of the Signature field are illustratedFIG. 4B. For example, two combinations of the Signature sub fields canbe used to represent the place marker record.

1. The first byte of the Signature field can be set to 0. This meansthat the first bit, URI_present field 415 is set to 0 and the SignatureType field 420 is set to a pre-defined value, e.g., 0. This indicatesthat this Signature record does not have a valid signature, but is usedonly as a place marker to identify records that are to be signed or leftunsecured. In this format, the Signature Length field 425 and theSignature/URI field 430 follow the Signature Type field 420. Referringto FIG. 10, Signature Length field 425, and Signature/URI field 430 arenot present in the Signature RTD.

2. The first bit, URI_present 415 is set to 0, and the Signature Lengthfield 425 is set to 0 (See FIG. 4B). The Signature Type field 420indicates the digital signature algorithm type that is used to generatethe signature. The Certificate Chain field 410 can be optionallypresent. By providing the signature type and certificate information inthe place marker record the security engine in the NDEF parser at thereceiver can authenticate the message even before the signature is to becalculated. Another advantage is that, for verification purposes, thesignature generation can happen as the NDEF message is read, givingadded performance improvement.

A Signature RTD with the Signature Type set to denote the signaturealgorithm used along with the digital signature is placed after the setof records that are to be secured. This Signature RTD includes thedigital signature that is to be verified at the receiver for integrityprotection, of the set of records. If the certificate values are notspecified in the Place Marker signature record then it is included inthe later Signature RTD that has the signature field set.

Using one of the above two methods it is possible to represent PlaceMarker/Begin Signature RTD records. The payload of the Place MarkerSignature RTD records is only a few bytes long, accordingly they can beset as Short Records (e.g., set SR=1 in NDEF header, as in FIG. 3) asdefined in the NDEF specification.

The records before the Begin/Place Marker signature record up to thestart of the NDEF message or up to another signature RTD record are notsecured. This is an additional advantage given to the application bywhich some large records or records containing public information maynot be secured using the digital signature. For example, in FIG. 7,records R1 and R2 are not protected by the digital signature, recordsR3, R4, and R5 are protected by the signature.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method for selectively securingrecords in an NDEF, in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention. In FIG. 12, a method 1200 for selectively securing records inan NDEF is illustrated.

Referring to FIG. 12, at step 1202, the method 1200 is initiated. Atstep 1204, a secured_bytes field is defined, which is used to identifythe data that is secured by this Signature RTD. At step 1206, thesecured bytes_field is set to the count of bytes of information that issecured in the Signature RTD, and the digital signature that secures thedata is added in the Signature RTD. The certificate chain that providesthe authentication is also added in the Signature RTD. The secured_bytesfield indicates a number of bytes to be secured preceding the SignatureRTD. At step 1208, data preceding the secured bytes field of theSignature RTD are secured, based on the value of the secured bytesfield. Thereafter, the method 1200 terminates at step 1210. The method1200 will be explained below in more detail under the heading Method 2.

Method 2:

Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, a new field, i.e., Secured Bytes field 805,is added to the Signature RTD record. A version field 800 in this formatcan just have the major and minor version numbers of the specificationthat is used. The Secured Bytes field 805 is an integer value thatindicates the number of data bytes preceding this field that are securedby this Signature RTD. This can indicate only data in the current NDEFmessage. Alternatively, the secured bytes can also include the data inNDEF records that are outside the current NDEF message. This is an addedadvantage of using this method. The NDEF parser reads the Secured Bytesfield 805 and applies the signature algorithm to that many bytes of datathat precede this field in the signature record. The header fields ofthe Signature RTD record are also included in the Secured Bytes.

For example, the NDEF message in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention may be used to depict a Smart Poster. A Smart Postercan typically have several records of Text type, or MIME type thatincludes audio, video data, URI, etc. The NDEF message illustrated inFIG. 7 can be a Smart Poster record with record R1 being a record withaudio data, and R2 being a record with data of an image. The creator ofthis Smart Poster can choose not to sign the records R1 and R2 forcouple of reasons. Firstly, these audio and image records can be largerecords so calculating the signature for them can be time consuming.Secondly, if these are not signed even simple devices that do not havethe certificates installed on them can get the information in records R1and R2. Records R3, R4, and R5 may be URI type, Text giving pricinginformation that are provided by an entity that needs to beauthenticated. Accordingly, using Method 1 described above, thebeginning of this block is marked by a Begin/Place Marker Sig RTD recordthat is placed before record R3 and after the end of the record blockthat is record R5, a Signature RTD with the signature field is placed.The NDEF parser can then appropriately use the information in this SmartPoster, where records R1 and R2 are not secured and are not used duringthe signature generation, and where contents of records R3, R4 and R5are secured using the signature field present in the Signature RTDfollowing record R5.

FIG. 13 illustrates an NFC Device according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 13, an NFC message generating unit 1300 generates anNDEF message in an NDEF format, and a transmitter 1310 transmits thegenerated NDEF message.

More specifically, in accordance with the method illustrated in FIG. 11,the NFC message generating unit 1300 places a place marker signaturerecord in the NDEF message. The place marker signature record is amodified signature Record Type Definition (RTD), and a first set ofrecords preceding the place marker signature record placed in the NDEFare unsecured. The NFC message generating unit 1300 secures second setof records following the place marker signature record using a signatureRTD including a valid signature. Thereafter, the transmitter 1310transmits the generated NDEF message.

In accordance with the method illustrated in FIG. 12, the NFC messagegenerating unit 1300 sets a secured_bytes field in a signature RecordType Definition (RTD). The secured_bytes field indicates a number ofbytes of data secured by a signature in the signature RTD. The NFCmessage generating unit 1300 then secures data in the NDEF messagepreceding the secured_bytes field in the signature RTD, based on a valueof the secured bytes field. Thereafter, the transmitter 1310 transmitsthe generated NDEF message.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been illustratedand described, it will be clear that the present invention and itsadvantages are not limited to only these embodiments. Numerousmodifications, changes, variations, substitutions and equivalents willbe apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention as described in the claims.Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded asillustrative examples of the invention, rather than in restrictivesense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for selectively securing records in aNear Field Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message in a NearField Communication (NFC) device, the method comprising: placing a firstplace marker signature record as a signature Record Type Definition(RTD) in the NDEF message, wherein the first place marker signaturerecord indicates a first set of at least one record preceding the firstplace marker signature record in the NDEF message as unsecured, a secondset of at least one record following the first place marker signaturerecord until a first signature RTD using a valid signature of the firstsignature RTD in the NDEF message as secured; and placing a second placemarker signature record in the NDEF message, wherein the second placemarker signature record indicates a third set of at least one recordpreceding the second place marker signature record from the firstsignature RTD in the NDEF message as unsecured, and a fourth set of atleast one record following the second place marker signature recorduntil a second signature RTD using a valid signature of the secondsignature RTD in the NDEF message as secured, wherein each of the firstplace marker signature record and the second place marker signaturerecord is defined by a combination of setting, within the place markersignature record, a URI_present field to ‘0’ and a signature_type fieldto ‘0’.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of at least onerecord preceding the first place marker signature record from abeginning of the NDEF message is unsecured.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the third set of at least one record preceding the second placemarker signature record from the first signature RTD preceding thesecond place marker signature record is unsecured.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising further defining the first place markersignature record by setting a URI_present field to ‘0’, and setting asignature_length field to ‘0’, wherein a combination of the URI_presentfield set to ‘0’ and the signature_length field set to ‘0’ indicates asignature RTD is a place marker signature record.
 5. The method of claim1, further comprising deleting of unsecured records in the NDEF messagewithout changing the valid signature in the first signature RTD or thesecond signature RTD.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingmodifying unsecured records in the NDEF message without changing thevalid signature in the first signature RTD or the second signature RTD.7. The method of in claim 1, further comprising adding unsecured recordsin the NDEF message, without changing the valid signature in the firstsignature RTD or the second signature RTD.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the first place marker signature record and the second placemarker signature record are indicated by modifying at least onesub-field of a signature RTD in the NDEF message.
 9. A Near FieldCommunication (NFC) device for selectively securing records in a NearField Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message, the NFC devicecomprising: an NFC message generating unit for placing a first placemarker signature record as a signature Record Type Definition (RTD) inthe NDEF message and placing a second place marker signature record inthe NDEF message; and a transmitter for transmitting the NDEF message,wherein the first place marker signature record indicates a first set ofat least one record preceding the first place marker signature record inthe NDEF message as unsecured and a second set of at least one recordfollowing the first place marker signature record until a firstsignature RTD using a valid signature of the first signature RTD in theNDEF message as secured, wherein the second place marker signaturerecord indicates a third set of at least one record preceding the secondplace marker signature record from the first signature RTD in the NDEFmessage as unsecured and a fourth set of at least one record followingthe second place marker signature record until a second signature RTDusing a valid signature of the second signature RTD in the NDEF messageas secured, and wherein each of the first place marker signature recordand the second place marker signature record is defined by a combinationof setting, within the place marker signature record, a URI_presentfield to ‘0’ and a signature_type field to ‘0’.
 10. The device of claim9, wherein the first place marker signature record and the second placemarker signature record are indicated by modifying at least onesub-field of a signature RTD in the NDEF message.
 11. The device ofclaim 9, wherein the first set of records preceding the first placemarker signature record from a beginning of the NDEF message isunsecured.
 12. The device of claim 9, wherein the third set of recordspreceding the second place marker signature record from the firstsignature RTD preceding the second place marker signature record isunsecured.